what car should I look at? (small SUV)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All good cars.

I would only say if you don’t feel you know cars, buying used is a little risky, which makes me +1 the pp who said new crosstrek

Just curious- why is this? What if they are certified pre-owned or something?

[Anonymous]

Given how little you drive don't buy a new car. Buy a used car/SUV coming off a three year lease that has less than 20k miles on it. Get it with an extended warranty and you should do fine. You will get it for about 60% the cost of a new car and it will last for a long time given how little you drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given how little you drive don't buy a new car. Buy a used car/SUV coming off a three year lease that has less than 20k miles on it. Get it with an extended warranty and you should do fine. You will get it for about 60% the cost of a new car and it will last for a long time given how little you drive.

PP - buy it from a dealer and make sure it is certified pre-owned which means the dealer has invested something in it and usually includes an extended warranty. I would not buy a used car from a stranger because I'm not a car expert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given how little you drive don't buy a new car. Buy a used car/SUV coming off a three year lease that has less than 20k miles on it. Get it with an extended warranty and you should do fine. You will get it for about 60% the cost of a new car and it will last for a long time given how little you drive.

OP here, and yes, I was thinking used. How do you know a car is coming off a lease? I saw a surprisingly good number of used cars on autotrader for under 25k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given how little you drive don't buy a new car. Buy a used car/SUV coming off a three year lease that has less than 20k miles on it. Get it with an extended warranty and you should do fine. You will get it for about 60% the cost of a new car and it will last for a long time given how little you drive.

PP - buy it from a dealer and make sure it is certified pre-owned which means the dealer has invested something in it and usually includes an extended warranty. I would not buy a used car from a stranger because I'm not a car expert.

Ah okay, yes, these are the cars I was looking at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nissan Rouge. Great features for the price. It has a really nice comfortable drive.

Nissan has lots of known transmission problems. I'd look at the Mazda cx-5.

We were considering the CR-V and the Rogue and thought the Rogue would be cheaper. But we bought our CRV right when the new CRVs were coming in, and got enough of a discount that it was similarly priced to the Rogue, and the CRV is much better reviewed.

[Anonymous]

I have a Honda HR-V for easy city parking - even though it's pretty compact, I like the lift and feeling higher on the road with all of the other SUVs out there. Also, with no kids, you could take advantage of the "magic seats" when you go skiing, etc., which make it really easy to fold down the second row (1 or 2 seats at a time, or all three) completely flat. And it's priced really well, if leather seats, sunroof, or heated seats and that type of stuff matter, you can get their highest trim for around 25k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:subaru crosstrek

+1 Resale value is good, lots of safety features. I got the mid-range 2018 including tax, title, fees in Virginia for $25,000. We are very happy with it

This is what I'm looking at switching out my car for. Do you think it's small enough to easily parallel park in spots in DC and in more compact parking garage spots?

Our other vehicle is HUGE (giant truck, purchased before our recent move to the city) so we need to have something smaller that fits in spots in DC but can still accommodate carseats.

Very easy, it's really just a lifted Impreza. We have a ridiculously tiny lot and I parallel park often. The backup camera is very nice clarity too which helps. I wish the gas mileage was a bit better, that's a trade off for the AWD. Our child is in a booster so I don't know about how well a carseat would fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try a CRV or RAV4. These are the benchmark vehicles of this segment. I wold not consider anything else unless you had a very specific reason.

The Mazda CX5 is also nice.

My sister has an older RAV The transmission has gone before it's even 10 years old. Toyota is going on reputation. I would steer clear, plus Toyotas are just plain not attractive.

Anecdotes mean nothing. Look at actual statistics.

For all we know, your sister could have completely neglected to maintain the car. Few people know they actually have to replace the transmission fluid on a schedule.

[Anonymous]

We recently bought a VW Tiguan. We've been pleased. It's one of the smaller SUVs with an optional 3rd row.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:subaru crosstrek

+1 Resale value is good, lots of safety features. I got the mid-range 2018 including tax, title, fees in Virginia for $25,000. We are very happy with it

This is what I'm looking at switching out my car for. Do you think it's small enough to easily parallel park in spots in DC and in more compact parking garage spots?

Our other vehicle is HUGE (giant truck, purchased before our recent move to the city) so we need to have something smaller that fits in spots in DC but can still accommodate carseats.

Very easy, it's really just a lifted Impreza. We have a ridiculously tiny lot and I parallel park often. The backup camera is very nice clarity too which helps. I wish the gas mileage was a bit better, that's a trade off for the AWD. Our child is in a booster so I don't know about how well a carseat would fit.

We have a 2015 Impreza wagon (same interior as Crosstrek, just not lifted) and we had two convertibles in there (one RF, one FF) when we first got it (though not with much room to spare--I think we squished an adult in between them once or twice, but I wouldn't make that a regular thing for anyone of normal size!)

We also don't like the mileage, which is pretty terrible in the city (~22 mpg). But it is great for parking, and fits quite a lot of stuff considering the size of the car. I do sometimes wish we'd gotten the Crosstrek for the clearance. Also, it is small. We knew this when we got it, but frequently encounter people who seem to think these are bigger cars than they are. Crosstrek, Forester, and Impreza are all on the same platform, and it is a compact car platform. (Crosstrek is just lifted; Forester is lifted with a higher roof, so more cargo room and headspace.) The interior capacity on the Impreza/Crosstrek are about the same as the Toyota Prius and the VW Golf, if I remember from our car shopping. We find it perfect for city living with a pod that we sometimes put on top, but some people are going to want to bump up to something CR-Vish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We recently bought a VW Tiguan. We've been pleased. It's one of the smaller SUVs with an optional 3rd row.

"I'm pleased with the consistently awful reliability, parent company gassing monkeys for a marketing stunt, and the brand's origins in National Socialism"

[Anonymous]

Love our Honda crv

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given how little you drive don't buy a new car. Buy a used car/SUV coming off a three year lease that has less than 20k miles on it. Get it with an extended warranty and you should do fine. You will get it for about 60% the cost of a new car and it will last for a long time given how little you drive.

OP here, and yes, I was thinking used. How do you know a car is coming off a lease? I saw a surprisingly good number of used cars on autotrader for under 25k.

The dealer will tell you. If you decide on a model you like, just call the dealer and tell him/her what you are interested in. I've used Auto Guru - it's a great used car site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We recently bought a VW Tiguan. We've been pleased. It's one of the smaller SUVs with an optional 3rd row.

+1. I bought a CPO and have had it for 3 years with no issues. It has been incredibly reliable, feels like a luxury car and cost 18k for a well loaded model.